Chapter 37

Crasedes uses Clef to tear across Tevanne and into the Dandolo foundry’s lexicon chamber, demanding a status report. Learning the lexicon lost its distance definition and will recover in minutes, he vows to help restore it but first leaps away to hunt the saboteur, overlooking an empty wooden box beside the foundry—evidence he fails to notice.

In the Dandolo ballroom, Sancia reels from Crasedes’s revelations and demands answers from a silent, damaged Valeria. Orso deduces Sancia and Berenice’s plan—twinned boxes and the imperiat to crash lexicons—and urges the next step despite Gregor guarding the doors. Sancia vows to save everyone, including Gregor, even at the cost of her life.

Moving through the estate gardens, Berenice approaches with two more boxes and Sancia’s shared sight. She encounters Ofelia Dandolo weeping. After a tense exchange, Ofelia, repentant for her atrocities and appalled by Crasedes’s darkness, offers to help and uses her authority to escort Berenice into the mansion.

Inside, Sancia watches Gregor stand rigidly on guard, noticing silent tears that reveal his buried self remains. Her appeals draw no response, and Valeria argues only unmaking all commands will free them. Sancia rejects this, concluding that using scriving for control repeats tyranny; instead, she commits to using it to connect so people change together.

As they ascend toward the ballroom, Berenice explains the plan to Ofelia: a small blade inscribed with twinning sigils will implant a command to link Gregor’s mind with Sancia and Berenice, altering him beyond Crasedes’s bindings. Ofelia, accepting her culpability and unique permissions, insists on delivering the strike herself to free her son. Berenice hands her the knife, and they proceed to attempt the rescue.